Sanitary shields for spring water drinking dispensers



Oct. 29, 1957 I w. LAWLOR 2,811,272

SANITARY SHIELDS FOR SPRING WATER DRINKING DISPENSERS Filed D60. 3, 1951 JNVENTOR,

W/z 14am LAM/LOB United States P m SANITARY SH ELDS QR WATER DRINKING DISPENSERS William Lawlor, Eagle Rock, Calif. Application December 3, 1951, Serial No. 259,591 l Claim. (Cl. 215:106

This invention relates to sanitary shields for spring water drinking dispensers, and more particularly to a sanitary bottle shield to be placed over the mouth and neck of a bottle of spring water to prevent an insanitary mouth and neck of such a bottle from contacting and contaminating the pure water in a spring water drinking dispenser.

The general object of my invention is to provide a sanitary shield of the character as above stated, that may be placed on the bottle that is customarily used in the dispensing of spring water; that covers the exterior part of the bottle that goes into the dispenser compartment that holds the water; that prevents the unsanitary conditions in the bottle tops now in use from polluting the drinking water in a dispenser; that may be made of any material, such as waxed paper, plastic, or other suitable material, and which is inexpensive of manufacture.

A more particular object is to provide a sanitary shield of the character stated, so constructed and arranged as to extend up over the portion of the bottle that enters the dispenser, and is formed with an annular open-ended stopper which extends into and protects the entrance to the bottle, thus providing a shielded outlet in the bottle leading through its mouth for conducting the water from the bottle entering the water chamber of the dispenser.

Other objects and advantages will appear hereinafter as this specification progresses.

The invention is illustrated in the annexed drawing, which forms a part of this specification, and in which,

Fig. 1 is a side elevation embodying my invention of a drinking Water dispenser with its upper portion shown partly broken away and in vertical section, and with an inverted bottle of spring water positioned in the entrance of said dispenser in the upper end thereof, for dispensing the water for drinking purposes or otherwise.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical section of the upper end of a drinking Water dispenser, with the mouth and neck of an inverted bottle of spring water, covered by a modification of my sanitary shield, positioned in the entrance in the upper end of said dispenser.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of my sanitary shield.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, in which the same reference numerals designate the same parts in all of the views, my invention comprises a circular sheet 1 of suitable material, such as plastic, from which sheet is stamped outwardly therefrom a central annular cap member 2 formed with an annular inturned end wall 3, from which end wall a cylindrical stopper 4 of smaller diameter than said cap member 2, and open at its inner and outer ends, is molded inwardly, centrally within said cap member, and from the inner end of said cap member 2 the sheet 1 is molded in the form of a skirt 5 diverging outwardly and radially from said cap member 2. The cylindrical portions 2 and 4 are coaxial with the flaring skirt 5, and with the central hole (best seen in Figure 3) in the circular sheet 1.

My shield may be placed on an opened conventional bottle 6 of pure drinking water, with the cap member 2 2,81 1,272 Patented Oct. 2-9, 1957 2 extending over the neck 7 and the cap end wall 3 extending over the mouth 8, with the annular stopper 4 fitted tightly within the wall 9 of the mouth of the bottle 6, and with the outer edge of the skirt 5 against the upper wall 10 of said bottle 6.

A conventional drinking water dispenser 11, with an inlet opening 12 in the upper end thereof, and a conventional ring gasket 13 fitted in the upper edge of said inlet opening, and with a faucet 14 leading from the lower part of the dispenser, may be used for supporting an inverted bottle; of pure drinking water, with my shield applied to the top of said bottle.

In Figure 1, it will be noted that my shield is made in one piece of sheet material, that is to say, the cap member 2 and the skirt 5 are made in one piece, while in the modification of the invention as shown in Figures 2 and 3, my shield is made in two pieces, that is to say, the cap member 2 and the skirt 5 are made in two separate pieces with the skirt member cut ofi at its lower central portion to form a sleeve 15 which fits or telescopes over the upper end member 16 of the cap member 2 and said members 15 and 16 may be pressed together in a tight joint.

The modification of my shield shown in Fig. 2 may be made of any suitable material, such as plastic, waxed or otherwise treated paper, and the stopper 4 may be slightly reduced in diameter to fit within a sleeve stopper 17, the outer surface of which fits snugly within and against the inner side of the Wall 9 of the mouth of the bottle and effectively seals the mouth of the bottle between said mouth wall 9 and said sleeve stopper 17, as shown in Fig. 2.

This sleeve stopper 17, when the plastic device is used, also prevents the plastic stopper 4 from cracking or warping, and insures a tight seal between the sanitary shield and the water bottle, thus anchoring the shield to the bottle.

The operation, uses and advantages of my invention are as follows:

When it is desired to replace an empty bottle of drinking water in the dispenser 11, with a full bottle of fresh pure drinking water, the empty bottle is first withdrawn from the inlet opening 12 of the dispenser. The cork or cap is first pulled from the mouth of a fresh bottle of drinking water and my shield is placed over the upper end of said bottle, with the cap 2 placed over the neck 7 of the bottle, the cap and its end wall 3 placed over the mouth 8 and the annular stopper 4 introduced tightly within said mouth of the bottle against the inside of the wall of the neck 7, with the outer edge of the skirt 5 of my sanitary shield against the upper wall 10 of the bottle covering the mouth and neck of bottle theretofore exposed to germs, and the bottle is then raised and inverted and 'the inverted upper end of the bottle is then introduced through the inlet opening 12 in the top of the dispenser into the upper end portion of the dispenser 11 until the upper wall 10 of said bottle covered by the skirt 5 of my shield rests upon the gasket 13.

After the water in a bottle has been drunk the empty bottle and my shield may be removed from the dispenser by merely pulling the skirt axially, and the used shield thrown away.

I claim:

A two-part sanitary shield for the neck, mouth and shoulder of a spring water bottle of the type to be inverted over a conventional drinking Water dispenser to prevent contamination of the dispenser contents, comprising a disposable circular piece of thin sheet material, having a central hole through which water may pass from the bottle to the dispenser, shaped to form two coaxial spaced cylindrical portions joined together by an integral fiat annular portion, and a flaring skirt extending from the larger of said cylindrical portions to be held between the shoulder of the bottle and the usual annular gasket of the dispenser when the bottle is inverted and supported by the dispenser, the smaller of said cylindrical portions being of a diameter to fit within the smooth inside wall of the neck of the bottle and the larger cylindrical portion being of a diameter to cover loosely the outside wall of the neck of the bottle; the other part being a separable, relatively firm seal-forming cylindrical sleeve frictionally engaging snugly the smaller cylindrical portion to anchor the shield to the bottle before it is inverted and to minimize interference with flow of water from the bottle; whereby the entire outside surface of the bottle which is to project inside of the dispenser is covered by the sheet material part of the sanitary shield, the water may flow readily from the bottle to the dispenser through said hole, and the sheet material part of the shield may easily be removed from the emptied bottle, when the latter is removed from the dispenser, by merely pulling the skirt axially from the bottle.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 302,268 Lothrop July 22, 1884 572,603 Hare Dec. 8, 1896 844,542 Schenck Feb. 19, 1907 1,078,214 Patnaude Nov. 11, 1913 1,202,804 Chadwick Oct. 31, 1916 1,629,358 Padgett May 17, 1927 

